Facts about Democritus

Summary

Democritus was a famous Philosopher from Greece, who lived between 460 BC and 370 BC.

Biography

Democritus was born in Abdera in Thrace, an Ionian colony of Teos. His birth year was 460 BC According to Apollodorus, which probably is more to be depended on than Thrasyllos, who set ten years earlier. His father was so rich that he was said to have received Xerxes I of Persia, when he came to Abdera. Democritus spent the inheritance his father on trips to distant countries, and to have reached India, Egypt and Ethiopia. Special mentions Democritus the impressive knowledge of the Egyptian mathematicians. According to Diogenes Laertius, he was on his travels also known by "the Chaldean magic."

Democritus wrote a considerable number of works on physics, cosmology, geology, medicine, ethics and politics, but all is lost - only about 300 fragments of his writings have survived, many of which are later collectors reproductions of his work.

"Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly"